If you enjoy grimdark with a side of slap-stick and a heaping helping of found family may I recommend The Devils!
Joe does nuance so well especially with his perspectives into religion, personal betterment, war, and the soul. I loved each of these characters and feel personally traumatized by that ending 😭 Also traveling to Rome right before reading this added a whole other level of nuance!
I still love first law more, something about the characters, but I have high hopes for the rest of this trilogy!

This book is what would have happened had the Six of Crows gang been adults. Also if Kaz Brekker hadn't been a genius that was twelve steps ahead of everyone else and Inej wasn't as skilled and hypervigilante. Basically Six of Crows if the crows were allowed to swear and also weren't super smart/lucky. Sufficeth to say, I loved every second of it and Joe Abercrombie's other works have risen highly up on my tbr!

3.75 - Unexpectedly humorous and grimy.

This is my first Joe Abercrombie book, so the amount of humor mixed in with the blood and gore had me quickly abandoning prior expectations and preparing instead for camp.

I enjoyed the motley crew of devils and company. Their interactions and growth throughout the book were the highlight.

It did feel a bit slow at times. I found myself paying a lot of attention to my e-reader’s completion percentage waiting for it to tick up.

But I suspect these characters and this world will be quite memorable, and I’ll surely pick up the sequel when the time comes!

Thanks to Tor for providing an arc through NetGalley for me to review!

This was my first Joe Abercrombie book and I haven’t been DYING to get into his work. I was so pleasantly surprised by how much a connection I gained to these characters throughout this book. For me, it’s one of those things that hits you after you have no more pages to read and I already miss these unlikely group of characters.

This book truly takes you for a wild ride with some vicious battles and surprising connections. This was just the high fantasy quest story I was looking for! Super grateful to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for an early copy of this very anticipated read!

Fantastic author and a fantastic book. Took time for character development but not slow. Everything well paced. I think fans of the genre and those starting out in fantasy will be happy. Thank you to the publisher.

Sadly, I am pulling this plug on this one at 33%. I'm not invested at all. I couldn't care less about the characters, and am bored out of my mind. When I put it down, I dread picking it back up. I've loved the First Law world, but this just isn't doing it for me. I am not going to leave a star rating on GoodReads, or other platforms, as I don't want to drag the average down. For Netgalley purposes I will leave a 2-star, as I feel that best describes my experience with this book. I'm sure so many Readers are going to adore this story, it just wasn't for me, at least not in this moment.

I don't know if it is goodbye forever with this one, but it's definitely goodbye for now.

3.25/5 - I can’t help but compare this to Joe’s First Law books. I love those books but I’m sad to say that I didn’t love The Devils. Don’t get me wrong though, it was still a fun time, just not anywhere near my top reads of the year.

The tone leaned too heavily into comedy for what I was expecting. The book is fast-paced, very plot driven and followed a fairly predictable and repetitive formula. The group would travel to a new location, there’s an action sequence, then they move on to the next spot. Rinse and repeat. Additionally, a lot of the scenes felt side quest-y and I found myself questioning what the overall point was more than once. The book finally captured my interest around the 60% mark, but it didn’t last long and I had to push myself through the rest. The character work was just good but not great. I was left wanting more. Some revelations were predictable. Idk.. I will be continuing on with the series though 😅

This has been said a million times already, but this really is Suicide Squad meets fantasy. If you enjoy the humour in the newer marvel movies, liked Suicide Squad and/or are a fan of the tone in Dungeon Crawler Carl, you’re going to have a blast with this one

If you saw and loved the movie *Thunderbolts, you’ll love this brand of anti hero. I was absolutely charmed by each character and hope we get an expanded view of some of them in a follow up. The Devils took a darker look at religion while keeping the lightheartedness that goes hand and hand with found family. Did I mention this is a horror novel? Because technically it is. And it’s phenomenal. This was my first book by this author and it won’t be my last.

Also, I was lucky enough to receive a physical copy as well (love you, Tor! Thanks!) and the end papers and foiling on the hard case are stunning. If you can grab a physical copy, I would suggest it!

A monk, a vampire, a werewolf, a pirate, a magician, a warrior, and an elf are sworn to escort a princess from the Holy City to Troy. I had the best time with this book and these characters. The mix of fight scenes, background scenes for each of the characters, and humor sprinkled throughout made it such a fantastic read. This is my first Joe Abercrombie book, and it won't be my last.

I became so attached to each of these characters, and I hope they all come back together in book 2.

This book was definitely darker when it came to religion and morality, especially since the characters are led by a monk who has to constantly battle his faith as they continue on to Troy with so many obstacles in their way, which sometimes can only be resolved in the most gruesome of ways.

Lastly, Vigga & Sunny are my queens - I love them so much

What a delightfully dark yet humours book. This was my first Abercrombie read but it won’t be my last. I struggled to get into the story but once I did I couldn’t put it down. The friendships that developed through the novel were top notch. I loved all the “devils” especially Sunny and Vigga. This was dark yet had pops of humour to lighten it up. I love violent and gritty novels and this definitely had violence and grit. A satisfying ending though I wouldn’t be sad if the Devils appeared again in another book. This had everything I enjoy, humour, violence, political drama and somewhat heartwarming friendship.

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie feels fresh while still retaining the style of writing the author has become famous for. It’s set in a new world, our world in an alternate timeline Europe, where the church wages war with elves that eat the flesh of man and are waiting for their chance to wage war against humanity yet again. A fellowship of an immortal, a jack-of-all-trades, a necromancer, a vampire, a werewolf, a monk, and an elf has to escort a thief turned princess across Europe while the many sons of her usurping sorceress aunt send human animal hybrid monsters after them. The Devils is full of hijinks, violence, characters with cut-throat dialogue, and emotional intelligence underneath that will cut you deep with how heartbreaking these monsters can make you feel.

Abercrombie balances familiar and fresh with his writing, vastly different from the world of The First Law and The Age of Madness series, but the staples of his writing style remain. Joe’s sardonic humor remains mixed in with high-intensity action and an undercurrent of tragedy that both the reader and the characters are aware of, but the latter actively tries to ignore. The book feels reminiscent of the travels of Bayaz’s party in Before They Are Hanged and the different sections of Best Served Cold, taking place in different regions of Styria. However, both the character work of the party, which is a collection of classic horror monsters, and the different settings across the alternate Europe are on another level. A best of both worlds scenario elevated by the years since those books, where Abercrombie has tightened his writing even more. What continues are violent action sequences that are brisk, breathless, and brutal, but with prose that flourishes like poetry.


The author’s characters are consistently flawed to an extreme degree, but what makes them lovable is that they’re always willing to try to be better, sometimes succeeding, oftentimes failing, but always trying. Each member of the congregation of the Chapel of Holy Expediency, better known as the devils, comes with a unique set of circumstances that both puts them into the mess and gets them out of the mess, usually through just the right amount of violence. The characters who get points-of-view chapters, Brother Diaz, the reluctant monk in over his head, Jakob of Thorn, the knight cursed to never die, Sunny the disappearing elf who wishes she could understand humans, Vigga the lustful and unstable werewolf, and Balthazar Sham Ivam Draxi, as far as voices go, could not be more different. There is not one of the main characters, point-of-view or otherwise, that left me cold or uninterested in their development. The devils are lovable, horrible monsters who desperately need multiple hugs, but you should probably do so reluctantly. Except maybe Balthazar the necromancer, who prefers to be called a magician and his ego is large enough a hug he gives himself is enough. He is likely my stand-out character as someone who loathes Bayaz, First of the Magi. This character carries the same amount of hubris but is constantly humbled and embarrassed by Benedicta the First, the ten-year-old Pope, Baron Rikard, the aged vampire, and Baptiste, the jack-of-all-trades former pirate and scout for the devils, and yet his hubris is a ship that won’t sink.

The supporting cast outside of the devils do not feel quite as deep as in Abercrombie’s previous books, but from the conspiring members of the church to sons of Eudioxia, the recently passed Queen of Troy, and their human-animal hybrid henchmen, they are still entertaining. This, along with the fast pace of this over five hundred page book, that flies by, doesn’t feel as if those parts are missing, but more that this is just the beginning. The book does feel like an opening act of a larger story to introduce the readers to the characters that comprise the devils and the world they live in. The elves are clearly a future threat, with it repeated that Alex being on the throne of Troy is essential as the first line of defense when, not if, they strike. The rapid-fire pace of the plot may not leave much time for the extended cast, but there is a foundation laid down and threads left dangling by the end that are intriguing for the future of the series, which includes characters outside of the devils themselves.

Joe Abercrombie’s world-building remains in a class of its own above many. The threat of elves looms over the world of The Devils, and the mission of this first book, with each backdrop of this alternate Europe showing a ripple effect of previous crusades against the elves. Abercrombie isn’t heavy-handed with it, often interjecting information about the location and its history with the mission of getting the thief-turned-princess Alex to Troy. The plot is straightforward, which might not be enough for some returning readers, but I feel the characters bring a lot to the journey that more than makes up for it. The Devils is now at the top of my list of Joe Abercrombie books I’d recommend to new readers of the author. Grimdark sometimes carries this negative connotation of a series of bleak ultraviolent tropes readers roll their eyes at but grimdark as a subgenre of fantasy still thrives under Abercrombie and The Devils still fits the bill, but less so than a lot of his previous works. As far as grimdark is concerned, this is a fun romp with fascinating set-pieces, romance, magic, and a bit less hopelessness. Another aspect that lends The Devils to be easily recommended is that, while the author has always had sharp wit in his books, this might be the funniest, and that also lends to the pages to flip by fast late into the night and sometimes morning.

Speaking of magic, as a fan of Joe Abercrombie’s Circle of the World, a collection of series that has magic few and far between that is often described as fading from the world, I’m curious where magic will go in both this series and future Abercrombie projects. It has been a joy to read an Abercrombie novel with much more magic that straddles the line of having rules and being more free form, often hilariously read through Balthazar’s failures, despite his qualifications. I look forward to everything involving Balthazar, magic or otherwise. The Devils comes with a cast of characters easily loved and empathized with despite their flawed and maybe monstrous natures. The setting is full of intrigue, mystery, and dangerous secrets of a Europe unlike our own. The story is full of chaotic action, bloodshed, and amusement that already has me anticipating what is next for this series, just as I plan to reread Joe Abercrombie’s The Devils again as soon as this review is done. Here is to more monsters soon

Abercrombie at his best. I don’t think if you are not a fan of his last series this will make you buy into who he is as a writer but it sure did a great job of giving longtime fans something new to obsess over

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie is set in a Europe rife with plague and religious conviction. The story follows a band of monsters on their holy mission to put a thief on the throne of Troy, and unite the east and west churches. Trouble is sure to follow a band of devils, though they may be the only group who can face the perils this mission guarantees.

My personal thoughts: Delightfully well written book! It’s an absolute roller coaster of a book, each of the characters have their own unique attributes and flaws that made me become rather fond of them. I enjoyed all the action, bloodshed, bonding and development this book contained. Frankly there were several surprises (and plot twists) throughout the book that had me genuinely shocked, which i wasn’t really expecting. Abercrombie wrote his characters in such a way that you really end up rooting for them and become fairly attached to them and their fate. I really enjoyed Sunny and Alex’s subplot. Vigga was likely my favorite character, with Jakob, The Baron, and Sunny tying for second place. Overall, just a fantastically written book with memorable characters and an unforgettable plot.

Thank you so very much to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this wonderful e-arc.

I read the arc of The Devils by Joe Abercrombie and I absolutely loved this story. Her Holiness, Pope Benedicta the First, has a group, a motley crew, a band of Devils that include a werewolf, a vampire, a necromancer, an elf, a monk, etc., to set out on a journey and get a liar and a thief, Alex to her rightful throne. Alex was discovered by her uncle, a Duke, on the streets - he claims she is a princess, the first born daughter of his eldest sister, also a firstborn daughter and the rightful heir to the throne. Alex thinks this is all too good to be true, but if she can get food and a safe place to sleep out of it, she is willing to play along. So, she is a princess, but once they get her back to Troy she will be crowned Empress. This collective of individuals give the words morally grey an entirely new meaning. And, they are under attack almost from the outset of their journey. The battle scenes are brilliantly wrought and the dailogue fantastic. I loved the character work and the found family. I am, admittedly a newbie to Joe Abercrombie, but I thought this story was fantastic. I laughed far more than I expected to in reading Abercrombie who writes grimdark fantasy. I'm giving this story 4.5 stars - I'm so happy to have had this arc and I need to thank Tor Books and Net Galley for my advance reader copy.

I told some friends about 17% of the way into this book that if all Joe Ambercrombie books were like this then I’m in some serious trouble because where will I put them all?

I’d heard of Joe Abercrombie before The Devils, but only in passing. It wasn’t until I read the blurb for this book that I decided to request a copy. All I needed to hear was, “...a notorious band of anti-heroes on a delightfully bloody and raucous journey…”, and that it was LGBTQ+ friendly and I was sold. I’m sat. It’s been a long while since I’ve been this happy to sacrifice 2.5 days to read over 550 pages of epic, sword-swinging, magic-flinging, fangs-gnashing fantasy.

The Devils fuses all the intrigue and danger of political fantasy (which I already adore) with the fervor and zealotry of mythological fantasy, upping the stakes that much more for our motley crew because an a heavenly host is in charge and an earthly crown is at stake. They have no choice but to accept the mission they are given, but exactly how this ramshackle band of reluctant found family members completes their assignment? Well, that’s kind of up to them. Their methods aren’t pretty. Heck, they’re not even halfway legal. But like some weird life hacks they get the job done.

This book never lacks for humor, action, food for thought, emotional depth, or character development. The worldbuilding is beyond reproach without ever being overly descriptive. There is never a preponderance of exposition and the exposition necessary to the story is slipped in so deftly sometimes you never notice it is exposition (which is how exposition should be written). The characters are utterly unique and so much fun I can’t wait until the next book, when I can see them again for more blood, guts, and death. 5⭐️



I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Action-Adventure/Book Series/Dark Fantasy/Epic Fantasy/LGBTQ Fantasy/Political Fantasy

There are some books that you speed through, s0me that you don't and some that make you want to do both simulatneously. Thats how The Devils by Joe Abercrombie made me feel. I absolutely could not get enough of this ragtag group of Devils and I never wanted it to end. This book had me from the very beginning. I laughed, I cried, I gasped in shock and cringed in horror. Abercrombie has a gift for making people feel all the things. He pulled no punches and did not sugar coat a thing and I appreciate that, it made the characters more real, reminding us that maybe were not all good or bad but a mixture of both. Needless to say I am DYING to read the next and it cannot come soon enough.

Abercrombie is tremendous at these sorts of bloodstained fantasy novels, this has werewolves and vampires and magicians, but is at it’s heart an ugly war novel, nothing majestic, just violent and cutthroat. A classic dirty dozen story of a bunch of bad people possibly doing a good thing. So much fun to read, it builds to a bunch of crescendos and wild battles and does a great job of fleshing out the despicable characters you will embrace.

MY JAWWWW...... DROPPED..... MY HEART.... BROKEN..... MY MIND.... NEEDS A SECOND BOOK TO THE DEVILS NOW!

Joe... my friend... you did it again! I had so much fun having the opportunity to read this and I have been nonstop recommending this to everyone! What a fast paced plot I could not put the book down! Each chapter had me at the edge of my seat as we help Alex (a long lost princess who needs to reclaim her throne but has been living as a thief for several years) is banded together by a group of "DEVILS" : a vampire, an elf , a werewolf, a tragic warrior and of course a magician who is also a necromancer led by the priest. These misfits are going to give you a run for your money as we dive into their past and from what it seems like this isn't their first rodeo being a group with a mission!

I loved this book from beginning to end! An action packed, funny cast, and a mission to reclaim the throne I could not put this down. The only negative comment I have is.... SUNNY! I need to know what happens to my favorite character :(

This one may be long but it's not boring. It has a little bit of everythiing and is a genre mash up. I enjoyed the magic aspect of it. It was dark but also humorous at times, which is a hard balance to make.

“To fight devils, one must be prepared to use devils.”

This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, and Lord Grimdark absolutely blew me away! If you’ve read from Abercrombie before this one has his same wit, dark themes, and morally grey (morally black really) characters, but this one brings in more of a fantastical element than I have read from before (at least in his first law series) and I LOVED IT.

PLOT: A fast paced, adventure story that had me turning the pages faster than I could read them. It was engaging, and I never knew what the hell was going to happen next. Knowing Abercrombie, when you think things have gone too far, you haven’t even seen the beginning of what he’s about to put his characters through. He builds his world through our characters adventure, and I love seeing the different perspectives, from those good, bad, religious, damned- it’s a creative way to expand the story.

CHARACTERS: Abercrombie writes some of the best characters in fantasy. His ability to weave the story and integrate it with character development is one that is so seamless, it has me excited for slow moments in the story, because it means I learn more about a character in a brutal, witty and clever way. I hate his ability to make me love characters I REALLY shouldn’t. This is the most chaotic found-family ever but they captured my heart, before slicing it in half.

WRITING: Abercrombie’s dark witty humor lands perfectly in this book. He writes banter between his characters so well, and I was laughing out loud, throwing my head back and groaning, and saying, “classic Abercrombie”. The man knows how to take it too far.

I can’t recommend this book enough! If it’s your first Abercrombie just know, you’re not going to leave this book feeling those warm fuzzy feelings of hope. That’s not how grimdark fantasy works. But you’ll leave laughing, you’ll leave having met some of your favorite characters of all time, and the story, world, and characters he weaves will stick with you!

Thank you to Joe Abercrombie and @torbooks for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!